Fan in Axe-Fx III

gigawatt said:
Geez, don't get all your panties in a bunch. I just had my Axe III turned on for the first time early this morning, and, honestly, I didn't think there was a fan in there, it's that quiet. But, if your still hearing it there's this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...2vNowDcPThB9mHkCiem7QzXJ2Mq53f5caAo4-EALw_wcB

I wouldn't be surprised if there's one already in there. I am surprised that nobody brought it up though. I mean, 10 years ago when my buddy and I bought the Ultra, he installed one of those fans and it was dead silent, even with the cover off we couldn't hear it. Honestly, I don't know why he bothered. We were working in his studio and I guess he thought a mic was going to pic it up, but the Axe was going direct to Pro Tools, and all he had to do was turn off the Axe while recording vocals.

Point is, silent fans have been around for a while, and there are not expensive at all.



80mm? is it that big? Well I guess its processor is a little bigger than the Ultra's ;);)
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Congratulations! You just made it to my ignore list. Don't get YOUR panties in a bunch!!
 
A massive copper heat sink would allow a bigger fan for sure. On my PC the heat sink is like 6” square and has a big 140mm or so fan. It also cost like $80, but it cools really well, better than previous water cooling rigs I’ve built, and is very silent as the fan usually isn’t over about 800rpm

The Axe would need to be 2-3U taller though for such a heat sink, not to mention a good deal pricier as a massive copper heat sink isn’t cheap.

It’s basically an issue of cost vs performance and finding the ideal compromise. If Cliff could sell the units at $4999 I’m sure he could build something insane, but few are going to pay double when the current spec probably exceeds most needs as is.

I typically build my own stuff, be it cars, computers, race bikes etc with a cost is no factor approach much to the annoyance of my wife. Why do I have $1000 electronic shifting on my bicycle when I live in flat Florida and don’t really have to shift as is she asks lol.

If anyone is really bothered by the noise, a Noctua 80mm with lower speed adapter brings the noise levels down from about 26dB to 17dB and has about a 2 degree increase in heat. Running at full speed is slightly cooler than stock, but not really that quieter. It’s moving more air so you hear more air flow through the vents, while the stock fan is slightly higher pitched.

Don’t know if it’s worth it to run slightly slower for less noise if it’s running slightly hotter though, guess depends on how badly your bothered by noise.

On my II I did swap the fan and ran it essentially silent for years with zero issue. Then again, that was an old II, not a 2 month old $2499 III lol
 
I guess I've been very lucky. Both my Axe FXII XL+ units were dead quiet as well. And keeping the thread civil helps. Ignoring someone for their post doesn't.
 
IMHO, all mixes should be periodically checked on headphones, since many if not the majority of people will listen to your music on those devices anyway. Ignore it in between headphone checking?
 
gigawatt said:
Geez, don't get all your panties in a bunch. I just had my Axe III turned on for the first time early this morning, and, honestly, I didn't think there was a fan in there, it's that quiet. But, if your still hearing it there's this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...2vNowDcPThB9mHkCiem7QzXJ2Mq53f5caAo4-EALw_wcB

I wouldn't be surprised if there's one already in there. I am surprised that nobody brought it up though. I mean, 10 years ago when my buddy and I bought the Ultra, he installed one of those fans and it was dead silent, even with the cover off we couldn't hear it. Honestly, I don't know why he bothered. We were working in his studio and I guess he thought a mic was going to pic it up, but the Axe was going direct to Pro Tools, and all he had to do was turn off the Axe while recording vocals.

Point is, silent fans have been around for a while, and there are not expensive at all.

80mm? is it that big? Well I guess its processor is a little bigger than the Ultra's ;);)
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That looks interesting. Has anyone tried that particular fan? Would it be plug and play, or would cutting wires/soldering be involved? I'll probably not be taking a screwdriver to my III anytime soon (noise seems quite reasonable to me), but curious none the less.

notalemming said:
Congratulations! You just made it to my ignore list. Don't get YOUR panties in a bunch!!
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Nice. Totally showed him.
 
Rane said:
That looks interesting. Has anyone tried that particular fan? Would it be plug and play, or would cutting wires/soldering be involved? I'll probably not be taking a screwdriver to my III anytime soon (noise seems quite reasonable to me), but curious none the less.
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I'm not sure but the Ultra had a small plug that connected to the board, easy as plugging in a TV. Without opening up the Axe III I have no way of knowing, I imagine something similar. If you ever do decide to take the cover off, just take a picture of the fan and connector and send it to them, I think that's what my buddy did, and they will know what it is.
 
The Axe-FX II and III both use standard 3-pin fan connections (like you'd find on a computer).

More recently, computers have moved to 4-pin fan connections... so the motherboard can throttle fan speed up/down as needed.
You can connect a 4-pin fan to a 3-pin connection (the last pin will just be unused and of course there won't be any fan speed control).

To keep things as easy as possible, if you're going to replace the fan... just get one with a standard 3-pin connection. No soldering or anything too involved.
 
Any basic 3 pin connector will work, just your basic fan. What you don't need is the 4 pin PWM fans, as those are controlled via software, which the Axe can't do.

I don't think the fan in question looks all that great, its just a basic rifle bearning, and nothing really all that special over the stock fan.

You can see in these pictures the stock fan, and then a Noctua. The stock fan has rubber grommets with the fan bolted to the fan deck plate. The Noctua can be mounted using silicon isolation tabs, like most computer fans, and then has extra isolation pads. These provides essentially zero vibration transmission. The stock fans sometimes had the bolts too tighter, mine had the bolt sticking out about 1/4th", which meant the gromitt was so compressed it didn't really do any dampening.

The Noctua fan has much better self stabilizing oil pressure bearing, 150,000 Hr lifetime, 6 year warranty, etc.

As far as the cable goes, it just plugs into the main board, 5 seconds.

IMG_2284.jpg IMG_2292.jpg IMG_2294.jpg IMG_2297.jpg IMG_2301.jpg
 
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lqdsnddist said:
I don't think the fan in question looks all that great, its just a basic rifle bearning, and nothing really all that special over the stock fan. I'll post some pictures when I have a moment
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Well, they claim their blades are designed to be extra quiet. I don't remember what exactly my buddy used, but it definitely did the trick.

Still, I couldn't hear the stock fan at all in the Axe III, maybe my hearing just isn't that sensitive...?

Get my point? I said yeah..... Go on and right me up for 1-25, post my face wanted dead or alive.................55!
 
lqdsnddist said:
Any basic 3 pin connector will work, just your basic fan. What you don't need is the 4 pin PWM fans, as those are controlled via software, which the Axe can't do.

I don't think the fan in question looks all that great, its just a basic rifle bearning, and nothing really all that special over the stock fan.

You can see in these pictures the stock fan, and then a Noctua. The stock fan has rubber grommets with the fan bolted to the fan deck plate. The Noctua can be mounted using silicon isolation tabs, like most computer fans, and then has extra isolation pads. These provides essentially zero vibration transmission. The stock fans sometimes had the bolts too tighter, mine had the bolt sticking out about 1/4th", which meant the gromitt was so compressed it didn't really do any dampening.

The Noctua fan has much better self stabilizing oil pressure bearing, 150,000 Hr lifetime, 6 year warranty, etc.

As far as the cable goes, it just plugs into the main board, 5 seconds.

View attachment 47426
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This is the Noctua NF-A8 FLX? The picture is a little blurry when I zoom in on it. Also, what does this do to your warranty?
 
Ian Minogue-Corps said:
Ok, I know it might appear facile but it drove me bloody mad with my Axe-Fx 2, is there a fan and how annoying is it ? . I will probably still succumb after all the hubbub has died down but enquiring minds etc
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No fan noise here. I record acoustics with a mic, and my Axe 3 is always on. I would know if there was some. On my end, zero.
 
notalemming said:
This is the Noctua NF-A8 FLX? The picture is a little blurry when I zoom in on it. Also, what does this do to your warranty?
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Yes, NF-AX FLX, the PWM version wouldn't serve any purpose. This one can run at 2000, 1600 or 1200 rpm, with the two slower speeds achieved with a little inline resistor you plug in. Less air flow, thus less cooling, but less noise.

I would guess if you said your DSP died, and it was from overheating, and you were running a fan that wasn't up to spec. you probably wouldn't have much in the way of a warranty claim lol. On the other hand, if your stock fan died (which mine in the II's have done twice over the time I owned those units) and instead of replacing it with the cheap TopHat or whatever the fan was called, you put in a much higher quality fan, that was rated for the same cooling etc, then MAYBE you'd still have a valid claim ??

On the other hand, if your main encoder knob dies after 6 months or something, I don't think they could say that was because of the fan, and instead is just a bum part, so I would expect that to be covered, but can't say for sure.

I'd say bottom line is that if you want your warranty, I'd leave everything as-is, then after 1 year (unless you bought the extended) when the warranty is up, if you want to swap a fan etc, guess its fair game.

Again, all just pure speculation so I in now way speak for FAS, nor have I specifically heard anything from FAS on the matter.
 
camilovelandiamusic said:
No fan noise here. I record acoustics with a mic, and my Axe 3 is always on. I would know if there was some. On my end, zero.
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You should have some fan noise, though pretty soft. If your putting your ear up against the vents on the side, and can't even hear the soft sound of airflow, then I'd be worried you've got a special edition "passive cooling" Axe III, and no 80mm fan is ZERO noise.
 
gigawatt said:
Ruh roh



Crap is that a battery in there?
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Why is this a bad thing ??

Do you know of any computer, or devices that are essentially a computer, like the Axe, which doesn't have a CMOS battery ?

These things are good for like 10+ years, I'm not following the "ruh roh" comment. We are going to all be playing the Axe VII or newer long before a battery life is a concern, and if it is a concern, it takes like 10 seconds to change for another 10 years of lack of worry.
 
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